Paying the correct amount
Several times reception staff have missed the fact that a client has more than 1 active invoice because when you add a new payment the payment amounts defaults to only one of the invoices.
I realise there are full balances at the top of the payment screen and in the window on the left but in a busy reception these are sometimes overlooked and just the amount in the EFT/Cash selection is seen, selected and paid resulting in the embarrasment of calling the client requesting further payments.
We have procedures in place to try and prevent this happening but it would be easier if the payment type defaulted to the total balance which could then be changed or part paid if the full amount is not to be paid at that time.
Is this possible?
Thanks,
Nick
Re: Paying the correct amount
I've had similar issues in this area. The client has had money owing on their account already and at discharge they have only been "charged" the amount of the visit being finalised, not the full amount of the visit plus the previous outstanding amount.
It leads to client frustration.
Matt Y.
Re: Paying the correct amount
Hey guys I am trying to recreate this and am running into some difficulties;
Scenario:
Total A. A previous amount is owing. The invoice associated with this has been Finalised.
Total B. A new invoice is In Progress.
Now if I;
a) Finalise the Invoice B, and click OK for "Pay now" I get the correct total (A+B)
b) If I just go to payments and crearte new I only get the total for A as B is still in progress.
The behaviour in B is as desired as is does not include In Progress totals?
Is there a scenario that I am missing?
Matt C
Re: Paying the correct amount
Hi Matt,
I don't think this is really an issue with the way it works, but the way it is displayed. I haven't really paid much attention to the screen to be honest but know that it sometimes happens, especially during training. I just checked and the payment does default to the total account balance so I suspect that this occurs when someone stuffs up the payment (eg. they press add before changing to EFT) and then need to delete the payment and start a new one.
I just did a test run and here is a screenshot:
Now that I look at it it is a bit confusing. They probably see current and think that that is the current amount due.
eg. previous balance of -$48- not sure where that comes from???
Having 1 of the boxes that simply states "Total Now Due" in bold and sticking out would probably solve it in my opinion.
Matt Y.
Re: Paying the correct amount
Hi Matt,
Great screenshot. I have been playing with the payment screen since you brought it up and I agree the the information is all there but the arrangement of the various totals is not that intuitive.
- "Current Invoice", "Previous Balance" & "Total Balance" should be arranged top to bottom given that Total Balance is the sum of them.
- I agree, bolding "Total Balance" in this light would be a good idea.
- I think the field "amount" is not specific and would consider changing to "Payment"
I have attached a screen shot.
Also the "Previous Balance" is incorrectly calculated when working from a zero balance.
What do you reckon?
Matt C
Re: Paying the correct amount
I think I may have been wrong in working out when this occurs. Well, maybe it is occurring in more than one situation? I think it actually happens when there are 2 unfinalised invoices for the 1 client.
This has been happening to us a bit lately as the nurses charge for pre-anaesthetic bloods before they are done to create an investigation. If I then go and invoice an estimate a second invoice is created.
When the animal is discharged via the worklist the invoice which was generated from the estimate gets finalised and the original one with the pre-anaesthetic bloods remains unfinalised. During the whole checkout the unfinalised invoice doesn't show up anywhere.
Some possible solutions:
Matt Y.
Re: Paying the correct amount
Hi Matt,
I think in this example you need to invoice the estimation first before adding additional services. Can look at some enhancements as well of course. i.e. if checking in and have valid estimation for customer display list of estimations and allow user to select and invoice ?
Other alternatives are estimation Invoice function checks for unfinalised invoices and prompts if want to add to it.
Think these better than trying to manage multiple invoices during check out and the printing issues this may cause.
Cheers
Tony
Re: Paying the correct amount
Hi Matt,
I like this solution Tony. We find that often the consult from the morning is in a "In Progress" invoice and the Invoice function from Estimations (an EXCELLENT feature by the way) creates a new invoice. We tend to then manualy append the larger of the two invoices so we only have one going.
A prompt that showed In Progress Invoices and applied the items to selected Invoice would be super.
Matt C
Re: Paying the correct amount
Hi Matt(s), Tony
I agree the main culprit for us is the invoicing of an estimate after a previous billing such as a morning consult etc. resulting in 2 invoices.
A prompt at payment re active invoices would be an excellent way around this and save making clients unhappy by calling later to request a second payment
Nick
Re: Paying the correct amount
Hi Tony,
merging when invoicing an estimate sounds good to me. Is there any reason for prompting in this situation though? I can't think of a situation where you would want to have the 2 invoices instead of 1. Perhaps others can?
Matt Y.